Editor : Amethyst00



Swipe—!

Using his thumb, Leo wiped away the blood running down his right cheek, then looked down at the blood staining his fingertip.

Watching Leo, Belian spoke.

“Come to think of it, I never told you my name.”

Meeting Leo’s gaze with his golden eyes, he gave a polite bow and introduced himself.

“My name is Belian.”

Even as he gave his name, Leo remained silent, still staring at the blood on his fingertips.

Then, with a quick lick, Leo tasted the blood on his thumb, turned his gaze back to Belian, and said,

“I wasn’t particularly curious.”

Skrrrk—!

The instant the words left his mouth, a silver flash carved its trajectory through the air.

Clang-clang-clang-clang—!

Belian deflected every single sword strike that came pouring at him from all directions.

“Oh?”

Seeing that, Leo let out a sound of admiration.

Swordsmanship was not working.

At its core, swordsmanship was a battle of reading and countering moves.

Flashy techniques and elaborate skill are merely tools for gaining the upper hand in that battle of moves.

At its core, swordsmanship is ultimately about overwhelming the opponent’s next move and striking them down.

Even if one reaches a transcendent realm, the conclusion is still the same.

Fwoosh—!

Leo whipped his sword upward, but Belian did not so much as blink.

As though he had already seen through the distance.

Tak—!

Leo reversed his grip on the sword he had just swung upward.

Shhk!

Then, as if bringing it crashing down, he carved the blade from above to below.

But before it could strike the crown of his head—

Leo’s sword was, before anyone realized it, already aiming for Belian’s throat.

A feint.

The strike aimed at the crown of his head had been filled with killing intent, while the strike aimed at his neck had carried nothing at all.

One blow heavy with dense killing intent, and another that carried none.

For a properly trained warrior, it was a deadly chained attack—one that could throw the senses into disarray.

A deadly choice in two parts: fail to respond to either one, and you die.

But Belian’s answer was, instead, to thrust his sword straight at Leo’s throat.

In that split second—too brief for an ordinary person to even perceive—Belian’s sword moved.

Anyone else would have thought it was sheer desperation.

Chaeng—!

But Belian’s choice had been the correct one.

Leo’s preceding attack had been a feint.

If he had reacted to the strike by defending or evading, his heart would have been pierced straight through.

But Belian had not fallen for Leo’s deception, and had chosen to counterattack instead.

After parrying Belian’s sword, Leo looked at him with clear interest.

At that reaction from Leo, Belian spoke.

“I wonder how long that composure of yours will last. I believe I already told you, did I not? I have no intention of killing you.”

“If you can kill me, then do it.”

“If I did, history would be twisted. That is not what I want.”

“So it’s not that you can’t—it’s that you won’t?”

Leo sneered at Belian.

“I wonder how long you’ll be able to keep thinking that.”

Wooooong!

Golden aura gathered around Belian’s sword.

Wrapped in dazzling golden light, the blade lunged for Leo’s heart.

Jjeoong—!

Leo knocked Belian’s sword aside.

'A dragon that uses aura…'

Dragons were called the strongest of races.

Because they possessed the Dragon Heart, an overwhelmingly powerful mana-generating organ, their basic output was on an entirely different scale from that of other races.

Thanks to that overwhelming power, they had displayed their majesty in the Age of Gods as the gods’ agents.

And they were also a race granted the privilege of choosing which supernatural ability they would master.

That was the key difference between them and other races, whose innate powers were fixed from birth.

Of course, once they made that choice, it could never be changed.

Ordinarily, when dragons reach the age at which they must choose their supernatural ability, they do not choose Aura.

In most cases, they choose either magic or summoning.

Even among those gifted with talent for a dual class, choosing Aura is exceedingly rare.

A major reason for this was the influence of the dragons’ Great Hero, Lysinas, the Wise Queen, who wielded both magic and summoning.

But an even greater reason lay in the dragons’ overwhelmingly superior physical abilities.

Aura is the power that maximizes physical ability.

And a dragon’s body was already so powerful that it had no real need for Aura’s support.

In other words, choosing Aura meant adding the power of Aura on top of that already overwhelming physique.

'But even so, compared to magic and summoning, the efficiency should be worse, shouldn’t it?'

By racial nature, dragons are a race best suited to magic and summoning.

Now and then, dragons with innate talent for martial arts did appear and learned Aura.

But the dragon before his eyes was not one of those dragons blessed with such talent.

He could tell from the movement of the sword alone.

Belian did not possess a particularly deep understanding of swordsmanship.

With a single swing, he could unleash power close to a natural disaster, yet he could not fully control his own strength.

But that thought of Leo’s lasted only for a moment.

Leo jerked his head back in haste.

Kkwaaaak! Thwack!

“…?”

With questioning eyes, Leo stared at the blade that had just grazed past the side of his face.

He had barely managed to avoid the attack.

And the building behind him had been sliced apart.

Kugugugugugung—!

The building collapsed with a thunderous roar.

Leo’s brow furrowed.

“That was a greeting.”

Belian curled the corner of his mouth upward.

He could not predict the attack.

'No—prediction is possible, but he goes beyond that prediction.'

He strikes from a direction Leo would never have anticipated.

'When he attacks, I can read his moves perfectly clearly. But when he defends, I can’t read his moves at all.'

He was reading Leo’s thoughts with perfect accuracy.

Even Leo, who had crossed countless battlefields, had never encountered this kind of enemy before.

Not even Aaron had ever been able to read Leo’s moves so perfectly or catch him off guard like this.

'This magic is strange too.'

At present, this place was a space created through illusion magic.

Leo’s consciousness was being held captive by that spell.

And from the very beginning, Leo had already seen through the true nature of that illusion magic.

'Nightmare.'

A Dragon Speech spell created by Lysinas.

Of course, it was no longer a pure form of Nightmare—it had already been altered.

'Given the nature of dragons, dual classes are common, so there’s nothing strange about him using magic. But…'

Leo’s eyes narrowed.

'Why can’t I dispel this spell?'

The moment one recognizes illusion magic for what it is, it becomes easy to break free of it.

If you can simply decipher the spell formula, dispelling it takes only an instant.

And yet Leo could not break Belian’s magic.

Not even Luna or Lysinas could keep Leo bound for this long with illusion magic alone.

'That doesn’t mean I’m incapable of deciphering the spell formula.'

The spell was complex, but interpreting it itself was not particularly difficult.

The problem was that the keyword needed to dispel it kept changing.

The dragon before his eyes undeniably possessed skill worthy of the title of King.

But not skill great enough to push Leo this far.

'Is he seeing through my thoughts? No… more than that…'

Leo tightened his grip on the sword in his hand.

'It feels as if he’s fought this battle before.'

In that instant, a powerful sense of déjà vu flashed through Leo’s mind.

And then—

Skagagagak—!

Belian’s golden sword aura embroidered the empty air.

Every one of the sword auras came flying in from angles beyond Leo’s predictions.

Kagagagak—!

Leo swung his sword and barely managed to block them.

But he failed to stop them completely.

Belian’s sword aura left small but certain cuts across Leo’s body.

Drip. Drip.

Blood from the wounds scattered across Leo’s body dripped to the floor.

“King of Beginnings, Leo Plov. Look upon these ruins.”

“……”

“Until a few decades ago, this place was where the finest talents—those who would lead the future of the elven race—studied.”

“So in the future, are there no places left for elves to study?”

“A new academy was founded in Lumeria City, the center of the world.”

“Then isn’t that a good thing?”

“Of course not. The elves’ new academy was no longer a Hero Academy. No—in fact, every Hero Academy in this world disappeared.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

Leo tilted his head.

“That means it’s an age that no longer needs heroes.”

“What a foolish thing to say. Every age needs heroes.”

“Ah. I misspoke.”

Leo let out a short laugh.

“What I meant was that it no longer needs Great Heroes.”

The Wise Queen, Lysinas.

The Poet of the Star, Luna.

The Brave, Aaron.

The Divine Blacksmith, Dweno.

And the Hero of Beginnings, Kyle.

For 5,000 years, the Age of Heroes endured.

And throughout that long span of time, every hero born into the world followed in the footsteps of the Great Heroes, whether willingly or not.

They had accomplished deeds greater than those of the gods, and were more noble and exalted than any other beings.

Leo himself did not particularly think of it that way, but regardless of what he personally believed, it did not change the fact that the path walked by Kyle, the Hero of Beginnings, had been noble and exalted.

And in an age when the threats of Erebos and Tartaros still remained, heroes like the Great Heroes were necessary.

For that very reason, the Age of Heroes had endlessly demanded that its heroes follow in the footsteps of the Great Heroes.

Though traitors existed, and though heroes consumed by madness, twisted ambition, and malice had continued to arise without end, even they had taken the Great Heroes as their signposts.

The will of the Great Heroes had never once been forgotten in the minds of all who lived through the Age of Heroes.

That was only possible because the Hero Record existed.

When Leo first learned that fact, he felt relieved.

Whatever the case for himself as a forgotten hero, his dear friends had not been forgotten and were still honored.

He had once wished for them to be remembered forever.

But now, his thinking had changed.

'In a way, having our will continue on through future generations is a curse.'

How many sacrifices had they paid for the sake of that nobility?

How much pain had they had to rise above, time and time again?

Because the names of the Great Heroes shone so vividly, the heroes of later generations were always crushed beneath them.

In the end, the Heroes of Dawn, who had come closest to the Great Heroes, offered themselves up as sacrifices for the sake of the world.

'If the threat of Erebos disappears, then heroes like us won’t be needed anymore either.'

Not a single one of the Great Heroes would wish for a world where sacrifice for the sake of the world was treated as something natural.

'We had no choice but to sacrifice ourselves… but not a single one of us died without resentment.'

Among the Great Heroes, there was not one who willingly accepted their own death.

Why did it have to be us?

In the moment they closed their eyes, every one of them thought that.

And from the bottom of their hearts, they wished that heroes like themselves would never be born again.

'In the end, a Hero Academy exists to train the next generation of Great Heroes. So once Erebos was defeated, it no longer had any reason to exist.'

That was why it must have disappeared in later ages.

'If that’s the case, then it makes sense that Seiren ended up in ruins like this too.'

“In an age where Erebos has been defeated, Hero Academies and Great Heroes are nothing more than relics of a bygone era.”

At Leo’s words, Belian’s face twisted.

“How can the one who inherited Kyle, the Hero of Beginnings, and opened a new age think such a thing?”

He glared at Leo with a face twisted in anger.

“Why? Would that be so wrong?”

“Of course it would! It is absolutely intolerable! Do you even know what became of the world because you failed to pass down the Great Heroes’ will and teachings to later generations? The world regressed.”

Belian shouted as though driven half-mad with rage.

At that, Leo dug a finger into his ear, then asked back,

“What the hell kind of nonsense are you spouting?”